"U.S. investors are considerably underweighted overseas," Nicholas Sargen, a manager of international fixed-income research at Salomon wrote in the firm's weekly Comments on Credit publication.

"Larger issues still constrain the Fed," Robert V. DiClemente, an economist at Salomon Brothers Inc., wrote in the firm's weekly "Comments on Credit."

"If our relatively pessimistic payroll estimate proves accurate, it undoubtedly would call into question the strength of the nascent revival," Mr. Jones wrote in Salomon's weekly Comments on Credit.

Writing in the firm's weekly Comments on Credit, Mr. Vertes said that "slower consumer price increases should persist through summer, as energy prices continue to decline."

"The recession now has a life of its own," Richard B. Berner, wrote in the firm's Comments on Credit weekly.

"Despite its dramatic easing efforts in the final months of 1991, the Federal Reserve is not yet off the hook," Robert DiClemente, an economist at Salomon Brothers, wrote in the firm's weekly "Comments on Credit."

"Declining employment and the erosion of real consumer spending power is reflected in confidence surveys in the Northeast," Mr. Jones wrote in Salomon's weekly "Comments on Credit."

"Barring a seasonal fluke, the December employment report should be substantially a replay of the prior month's debacle," Robert DiClemente, an economist at Salomon Brothers, wrote in the firm's weekly "Comments on Credit."

"Layoff patterns and the winter's seasonal vagaries probably distorted the measure," Alan Levenson, an economist at Salomon Brothers, writes in the firm's weekly Comments on Credit.

For these reasons, expectations of another Fed easing "are better deferred than abandoned," Susan Hering, an economist at Salomon Brothers, wrote in the firm's weekly Comments on Credit.